Good leaders always show up

Don Kramer/Northwest Guardian

I suffered aloud once to my infantry battalion commander that we were losing too many experienced leaders to seasonal PCS rotations.

As his adjutant, it fell to me to ensure smooth transitions and minimize underlap in the battalion’s officer and NCO corps, and he was not shy about letting me know when he felt I wasn’t managing the process well enough.

Because of his indelicate prodding, my management technique in those days required repeated visits to the division personnel offices to ensure we received our fair share of the replacement flow. If I got the occasional peak at officer records briefs that revealed which inbound lieutenants had earned the most infantry school badges, and somehow those young officers received orders to our battalion, we considered that our good infantry fortune.

Rumor had it, however, that a fellow battalion commander discovered the practice; when he accused my boss of rigging the replacement flow during a brigade command-and-staff meeting, a brief fist fight ensued. I wasn’t there, but people I trusted swore it was true.

With that kind of commander, I wasn’t surprised when he laughed and mocked me about my concern for the loss of leadership quality and experience.

“Lieutenant, one thing you’ll learn in your Army career,” he said, his meaty fist hitting my shoulder harder than necessary to make the point, “good leaders always show up.”

Who knew he would be right? The next crop of NCOs, lieutenants and junior captains arrived, fresh from training, flush with alternate experiences, and full of singular perspectives that enriched and energized our battalion. I farewelled some friends, hailed some new ones, and Army life in the battalion continued without our former superstars.

I’ve come to see that experience as a microcosm that applies to other branches, other services, We perennially produce good leaders in all services because of time-tested training and education systems.

The nation’s military training programs have produced too many visionary leaders to count. To people on the outside, the methods of those programs might appear routine and repetitive, which they judge produce cookie-cutter approaches to complex issues. But critics fail to appreciate the diverse mix of personalities absorbing the training. Different people apply unique perspectives to the same training situations and produce different outcomes.

Also not readily apparent is though military curricula change at their own pace, due in part to ensuring results-oriented approaches, practices do gradually evolve as weapons, equipment and threats evolve. The adoption of more appropriate tactics, techniques and procedures is apparent when comparing training during different wars or time periods.

Today’s Army, for example, trains very differently than we did during the Cold War. And look at the Army’s steep learning curve when urgency dictated quick reaction to the destructiveness of IEDs.

The nation continues to attract the selfless among us to serve the country, and robust training and education systems keep pumping out leaders who marry their skills and life experience with the latest TTPs to push us to adapt, advance and improve.

To that extent, we’ve seen great leaders on Joint Base Lewis-McChord go, but we’ve also seen great leaders take their places.

Last week, the JBLM community bade goodbye to Col. Kenny Weldon, deputy garrison commander and commander of 627th Air Base Group, who has been focused on making joint bases work for nearly the last half dozen years of his Air Force career. Some might worry, as I did long ago, where we could possibly find a skill set like his in someone to replace him.

But enter Col. Valerie Hasberry, whose resume brims with degrees, success in multiple specialties, a number of joint assignments and education at other services’ leadership schools. If you set out to design an Air Force leader for a complex joint-base environment, chances are the result would come close to a senior officer with her skill set and experience, based on education and assignments.

The recipe has been the same for a long time. From the outside, the slowly churning system might appear to some slow, to others chaotic or turbulent. But the results prove time and again what my crusty infantry mentor told me 30 years ago.

Somehow, they always show up.